Casing or shell feeder attachment for loading machines

ABSTRACT

An inclined stationary hopper of circular form has a large discharge opening in the bottom thereof at the high end through which bullet casings (or shotgun shells) are dropped one by one open end up from holes provided in circumferentially spaced relation in the marginal portion of a rotary plate disposed in parallel spaced relation to the hopper bottom. The casings or shells drop open end up into the holes in the plate from a supply piled on top of the rotary plate in the low end of the hopper and are carried around to the discharge opening to be dropped, the open end up disposition of the casings or shells in the holes being assured because their closed flanged ends are appreciably heavier. Stirring of the casings or shells in the pile by an upwardly projecting finger on the rotary plate helps to jostle and tumble the same so they drop more quickly into the holes in the rotary plate. A funnel, disposed under the hopper&#39;&#39;s discharge opening, guides the casings or shells open end up into a substantially vertical feeder tube that extends down to the loading machine. The electric motor that transmits drive to the rotary plate through suitable reduction gearing is controlled by a switch operated by a feeler finger that extends through a slot in one side of the feeder tube near its upper end and is spring pressed normally upwardly to closed circuit position but arranged to be held down in open circuit position but arranged to be held down in open circuit position by one or more casings or shells to stop the motor when a pileup occurs in the tube due to the casings or shells not being processed as fast as they are being dropped into the feeder tube.

United States Patent Fullmer [151 3,659,492 51 May 2,1972

['54] CASING 0R SHELL FEEDER ATTACHMENT FOR LOADING MACHINES [72]Inventor: Roger W. Fullmer, Rockford, Ill.

[73] Assignees: Glen L. Dunahoo, Lindenwood, 111.; Nathan Adler,Southfield, Mich.; Roger Fullmer, Rockford, Ill. part interest to each[22] Filed: Feb. 9, 1970 [21] AppLNo; 9,805

3,430,808 3/1969 Mathews ..221/10 Primary Examiner-Benjamin A. BorcheltAssistant Examiner-J. J. Devitt Attorney-Andrew F. Wintercom [57]ABSTRACT An inclined stationary hopper of circular form has a largedischarge opening in the bottom thereof at the high end through whichbullet casings (or shotgun shells) are dropped one by one open end upfrom holes provided in circumferentially spaced relation in the marginalportion of a rotary plate disposed in parallel spaced relation to thehopper bottom. The casings or shells drop open end up into the holes inthe plate from a supply piled on top of the rotary plate in the low endof the hopper and are carried around to the discharge opening to bedropped, the open end up disposition of the casings or shells in theholes being assured because their closed flanged ends are appreciablyheavier. Stirring of the casings or shells in the pile by an upwardlyprojecting finger on the rotary plate helps to jostle and tumble thesame so they drop more quickly into the holes in the rotary plate. Afunnel, disposed under the hoppers discharge opening, guides the casingsor shells open end up into a substantially vertical feeder tube thatextends down to the loading machine. The electric motor that transmitsdrive to the rotary plate through suitable reduction gearing iscontrolled by a switch operated by a feeler finger that extends througha slot in one side of the feeder tube near its upper end and is springpressed nonnally upwardly to closed circuit position but arranged to beheld down in open circuit position but arranged to be held down in opencircuit position by one or more casings or shells to stop the motor whena pileup occurs in the tube due to the casings or shells not beingprocessed as fast as they are being dropped into the feeder tube.

4 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures Patented May 2, 1972 3,559,492

2 Sheets-Sheet l llVVE/VTOR ROGER W. FULLMEF? Arm CASING R SHELL FEEDERATTACHMENT FOR LOADING MACHINES This invention relates to a casingfeeder attachment for bullet loading machines, the invention being alsoapplicable to the feeding of shells to a shell loader.

There has long been a demand for an automatic casing feeder attachmentfor loading machines (and the same is true of shell feeding) as it meansnot only slow and tedious work filling a feed tube by hand with casings(or shells) but the loading machine usually stands idle all the timethat this hand feeding must be done by the operator. The feederattachment of my invention requires only maintaining a suitable supplyof casings (or shells) in the hopper at the outset and the electricmotor driven feeder mechanism attends to the delivering of a steadystream of casings (or shells) into the upper end of the feed tube,thereby allowing the operator to devote his full attention to theoperation of the loading machine, which, even in the case of ahand-operated machine, has enough other things to occupy his completeattention, like the feeding of bullets (or shot) and the separatefeeding of primers, without having to bother about filling another feedtube with the casings (or shells) at more frequent intervals.

The feeder attachment of my invention comprises an inclined stationarycircular hopper with a funnel extending downwardly from an opening inthe bottom thereof at the high side for discharge of casings (or shells)open end up into a feeder tube, and a rotary inclined perforated plateoperated in a predetermined spaced parallel relationship to the bottomof the hopper, the perforations (which are preferably about one andone-half times the diameter of the casings or shells) being in acircular series around the marginal portion of the plate on a radiussuch that the casings (or shells) dropping into the holes and riding ontheir flanged lower end on the bottom of the hopper will fall throughthe funnel into the feeder tube, one by one, as the holes register withthe funnel opening, the casings (or shells) being certain of droppinginto the openings open end up by reason of:

l. The flanged closed end being appreciably heavier than the open end;

2. The continual agitation of the pile of casings (or shells) by astirring projection on the top of the rotary plate causing the casings(or shells) to be tumbled around and dropped into the holes in therotary plate more than they would otherwise as a result of the turningof the perforated plate alone, and

3. The weight of the pile of casings (or shells) above any given casing(or shell) that is teetering on the verge of entering an opening in theplate causing the casing (or shell) to drop into place flanged closedend down.

A novel spring pressed finger extending through a slot in one side ofthe feeder tube is normally urged upwardly to closed circuit positionbut is arranged to be held down by one or more casings (or shells) inthe event of a pile-up of casings (or shells) in the feeder tube so asto turn off the electric motor automatically when there are more thanenough stacked in the feeder tube.

It will be understood that wherever the word casing is used hereinafter,the word shell" is also to be considered as interchangeable with it, toavoid the necessity of adding (or shell) in each instance.

The invention is described hereinafter by reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. I is a side view of the casing feeder attachment with ahand-operated loading machine shown in dotted outline adjacent to it;

FIG. 2 is a vertical section through the hopper and the adjacent upperportions of the feeder attachment, taken on line 2-2 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 3 is a top view of the hopper on line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional detail on line 4-4 of FIG. 3 showing how thecasings slide on the bottom of the hopper after dropping into the holesin the rotary plate;

FIG. 5 is a similar sectional detail in the plane of the line 2- 2showing (a) in dotted lines how the casings usually teeter on the edgesof the holes before dropping in place therein open end up, and (b) arotary plate with larger size holes to accommodate larger calibercasings;

FIG. 6 is a detail of the feeder tube showing how the feeler fingeroperates the switch to stop the motor automatically when there is apile-up of casings above a predetermined level due to the loader notusing up the casings as fast as they are being dropped into the feedertube from the rotary plate in the hopper, and

FIG. 7 is an electrical wiring diagram showing the manually operatedswitch and the automatically operable switch both connected in serieswith the motor.

Similar reference numerals are applied to corresponding parts throughoutthe views.

Referring to the drawings, the reference numeral 8 designates the feederattachment generally designed for feeding bullet casings 9 to a loadingmachine, the one indicated at 10 in FIG. I being a hand-operated one, asthe handle 11 indicates, such as the well known Star loading machinemanufactured in San Diego, California, believed to have been patentedabout 1940. In that machine, the casings fed downwardly open end upthrough the feeder tube 12 are transferred laterally at 13 into theloader on the first oscillation of handle 11 and indexed from onestation to the next on each successive oscillation of the handle to have(1) the primer ejected; (2) a new primer fed from another tube andinserted; (3) a measured amount of powder supplied, and (4) a bullet fedfrom still another tube and inserted, a finished bullet being dischargedinto a container for each oscillation of the handle at the last station.Ifa casing 9 is accidentally fed from tube 12 open end down, it will notfit in the loader and the operator cannot oscillate handle 11 and theoperator immediately corrects this by inverting the casing if it has notbeen damaged or inserting another one by hand. The feeder attachment 8works so well that the chance of a casing being fed wrong end down tothe loader is only one in about six hundred casings, judging from actualexperience over many months of substantially daily use in commercialreloading on a fairly large scale. Filling the two tubes with primersand bullets is time consuming enough without the operator having to fillthe third tube 12 with casings by hand and this tube will accommodateonly a fraction of the number of units accommodated by either of theother two tubes, so, as a result, this necessitated much more frequentshutdowns of the loader and cut down the operating efiiciency the most,and, accordingly, led to the development of the present automatic feederattachment. With this attachment, the operator need only check thehopper 14 from time to time and see to it that casings are poured in tomaintain the level indicated at 15 in FIGS. 2 and 3.

The hopper 14 is of cylindrical form and mounted, as shown at 16, ondiametrically opposite sides in an inclined position between a pair ofuprights 17 carried on a base 18 that rests on the same support 19 withthe base 20 of the loader 10, the support 19 being usually a workbenchor the like disposed at approximately table height from the floor. Abracket 21 suspended from a crosspiece 22 fixed to the uprights 17provides support for the upper end portion of the feeder tube 12, asseen at 23, and also for a switch 24 that controls the electric motor 25that drives a rotary plate 26 disposed in the bottom portion of thehopper 14 in spaced parallel relationship to the bottom 27 of thehopper. The motor drives the plate 26 through suitable reductiongearing, similarly as the spit of a barbecue apparatus, the end-mostdriven element being that indicated at 28 in FIG. 2 as having a squaresocket therein detachably engaged by the square shank 29 on the hubmember 30 carrying the rotary plate 26. This permits substitution of onerotary plate for another, as, for example, whereas the plate 26 hascircurnferentially spaced holes 31 in the marginal portion thereof of asize approximately one and one-half times the diameter of a .38 bulletcasing 9, another rotary plate 26' shown in FIG. 5 is of the samediameter as the plate 26 but has appreciably larger holes 31' providedtherein to accommodate .45 bullet casin 9'. Either plate is adapted tobe fastened to the hub 30 by screws 32, four of which are provided in 90spaced relationship, two diametrically opposed screws serving to fastena stirrer rod 33 having an upwardly projecting finger 34 on one end toagitate the casings and tumble them so that they will more quickly dropinto the holes 31, flanged closed end 35 down and open end up, as seenin FIGS. 3 and 4. The dropin zone is indicated at 36 in FIG. 3. It ishere that the casings are most apt to drop into the holes 31, as anycasing teetering on the edge of a hole 31, like the casing 9' is shownin dotted lines as teetering on the edge of the hole 31' in FIG. 5, willdrop into the hole with the closed flanged heavier end 35 down becauseof the appreciably greater weight of that end compared to the open end,and, of course, this dropping into place in this zone is due in goodmeasure to the weight of the casings above any given casing teetering inthis manner on the edge of'one of the holes 31 or 31, the stirring ofthe casings by the finger 34 also helping in that direction. Thecasings, after entry in the holes 31 or 31', slide on their flanged ends35 on the bottom 27 until they reach the large discharge opening 36provided in the bottom 27 in the high end of the hopper, where thefunnel 37 provided on the upper end of the feeder tube 12 under theopening 36 guides the casings into the feeder tube 12, as indicated indotted lines in FIG. 2. As each casing drops down in the tube 12 itdeflects a feeler finger 38 that is pivoted to the switch 24 and extendsinto the tube 12 through a slot 40 provided in one side wall thereof,but since the finger 38 is spring-pressed in an upward direction, asindicated diagrammatically at 41 in FIG. 7, the momentary interruptionof the current to the motor 25 is not enough to stop the motor 25. It isonly when the casings 9 have piled up in the feeder tube 12, asillustrated in FIG. 6, that the last one or two casings 9 on the stackhold the finger 38 down in open circuit position, stopping the motor 25and accordingly stopping the delivery of casings to the feeder tubeuntil the operator operating the loader uses enough of the casings torelease the finger 38 and thus allow the motor 25 to start again turningthe plate 26.

In passing, 42 is a flexible extension cord which, as shown in FIGS. 1and 7, terminates in a plug 43 that can be inserted in any convenientelectrical outlet, the extension cord 42 having one wire connection, asat 44, with the on-off manual switch 45 that is connected in series withthe other switch 24 that is automatically operable by finger 38 to stopthe motor 25 when there is an excess number of casings 9 available intube 12.

The operation should be clear from the foregoing description. Theoperator who oscillates the handle 11 of the loader 10 keeps the hopper14 supplied with casings 9 or 9, depending upon which of the rotors 26or 26', respectively, is being used, the usual height of the pile ofcasings being, as indicated roughly in dot-and-dash lines in FIGS. 2 and3, and, assuming he has closed the switch 45, motor 25 will turn theplate 26 or 26 at a predetermined reduced speed in relation to the motorspeed causing the picking up of casings in holes 31 or 31 in the drop-inzone indicated at 36 in FIG. 3, the casings dropping into the holesheavy end down as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, any casing teetering on theedge of one of the holes, as indicated in dotted lines in FIG. 5, beingcertain to drop down into the hole and rest on the bottom 27 of thehopper not alone because the flanged closed end 35 of each casing is theheavier end but also because of the weight of the pile of casings aboveit and the fact that these casings are continually being stirred by thefinger 34 turning with the rotary plate 26 or 26'. The loader is,therefore, supplied with casings in a high enough ratio to the averagespeed of operation of the loader 10 so that there is always an adequatesupply of casings in the lower end portion of the feeder tube 12 at anygiven time, the casings dropping into the tube past the finger 38 fastenough so that there is no danger of the motor 25 being stoppedaccidentally on that account. It is only when the operators time istaken up replenishing the supply of casings at 15 in hopper 14 or whenhe is occupied in replenishing the supply of primers or bullets in theother two gravity feed tubes, that a pile-up of casin s might occur inthe feeder tube 12, in which event finger 3 is moved downwardly and helddown, as

shown in FIG. 6, in open circuit position against the action of itsreturn spring 41, that the motor 25 is temporarily shut off. In view ofthe great increase in production made possible with the feederattachment 8 and that it is available at a fraction of the cost of theloader 10, this attachment should pay for itself in a short timewherever loaders are used on a commercial scale. The casings 9 shown arefor .38s and the shorter and larger diameter casings 9 are for .45s,and, as previously indicated, the invention is also applicable to thefeeding of shells for shotguns although no shells have been shown.

It is believed the foregoing description conveys a good understanding ofthe objects and advantages of my invention. While a preferred embodimentof the invention has been illustrated and described, this is only forthe purpose of illustration, and it is to be understood that variousmodifications in structure will occur to a person skilled in this art.

I claim:

1. In a casing or shell feeder attachment for a loading machine, thecombination of a substantially cylindrical open top hopper supported inan inclined position and having a discharge opening provided in thebottom thereof at the high portion over a gravity feeder tube that isstraight its full length and extends substantially vertically downwardlyto and is connected at its lower end with the loader to supply emptybullet casings or shotgun shells open end up to the loader for loadingone at a time, a rotatable substantially circular plate of nearly thesame diameter as said hopper rotatably mounted therein in apredeten-nined vertically spaced relation to the bottom thereof andhaving circular holes provided therein in circumferentially spacedrelation in the marginal portion thereof, all of a diameter larger thanthe diameter of the bullet casings or shotgun shells but smaller thantheir length so that the heavier flanged closed ends of said bulletcasings or shotgun shells will drop freely therethrough to slide on thebottom of the hopper and the casings or shells will be dropped open endup into the tube in the feeding operation.

2. A structure as set forth in claim 1, wherein the plate is removableand replaceable in said hopper and there is at least a second rotatablecircular plate of substantially the same diameter that may besubstituted therefor also having circumferentially spaced holes of adifferent diameter than those in the first plate provided in themarginal portion thereof but similarly related in diameter and length ofother bullet casings or shotgun shells whereby to enable using the samefeeder attachment with the loading machine in the feeding of a differentsize of bullet casings or shotgun shells without other changes in saidattachment.

3. A structure as set forth in claim 1, wherein the feeder tube has aside opening provided therein of small size in relation to the length ofthe bullet casings or shotgun shells through which a feeler fingerconnected with an auxiliary switch normally projects to open the switchwhen a predetermined stack of casings or shells is built up in saidtube, there being an electric motor connected through reduction gearingwith the rotary plate to turn it continuously at a predetermined speedwhen a manually operable switch connected in circuit with said auxiliaryswitch is closed to connect said motor with a source of electric currentsupply.

4. A structure as set forth in claim 3 including spring means normallyholding said auxiliary switch in a closed position, said feeler fingerbeing operable by a bullet casing of shotgun shell against the action ofsaid spring means to open said auxiliary switch when suflicient casingsor shells accumulate in said feeder tube.

i t i *3 4

1. In a casing or shell feeder attachment for a loading machine, thecombination of a substantially cylindrical open top hopper supported inan inclined position and having a discharge opening provided in thebottom thereof at the high portion over a gravity feeder tube that isstraight its full length and extends substantially vertically downwardlyto and is connected at its lower end with the loader to supply emptybullet casings or shotgun shells open end up to the loader for loadingone at a time, a rotatable substantially circular plate of nearly thesame diameter as said hopper rotatably mounted therein in apredetermined vertically spaced relation to the bottom thereof andhaving circular holes provided therein in circumferentially spacedrelation in the marginal portion thereof, all of a diameter larger thanthe diameter of the bullet casings or shotgun shells but smaller thantheir length so that the heavier flanged closed ends of said bulletcasings or shotgun shells will drop freely therethrough to slide on thebottom of the hopper and the casings or shells will be dropped open endup into the tube in the feeding operation.
 2. A structure as set forthin claim 1, wherein the plate is removable and replaceable in saidhopper and there is at least a second rotatable circular plate ofsubstantially the same diameter that may be substituted therefor alsohaving circumferentially spaced holes of a different diameter than thosein the first plate provided in the marginal portion thereof butsimilarly related in diameter and length of other bullet casings orshotgun shells whereby to enable using the same feeder attachment withthe loading machine in the feeding of a different size of bullet casingsor shotgun shells without other changes in said attachment.
 3. Astructure as set forth in claim 1, wherein the feeder tube has a sideopening provided therein of small size in relation to the length of thebullet casings or shotgun shells through which a feeler finger connectedwith an auxiliary switch normally projects to open the switch when apredetermined stack of casings or shells is built up in said tube, therebeing an electric motor connected through reduction gearing with therotary plate to turn it continuously at a predetermined speed when amanually operable switch connected in circuit with said auxiliary switchis closed to connect said motor with a source of electric currentsupply.
 4. A structure as set forth in claim 3 including spring meansnormally holding said auxiliary switch in a closed position, said feelerfinger being operable by a bullet casing of shotgun shell against theaction of said spring means to open said auxiliary switch whensufficient casings or shells accumulate in said feeder tube.